On April 14, 2018, six musical acts were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The 33rd annual gala was taped and will be broadcast on HBO on Saturday, May 5 at 8pm. The laureates this year are: Bon Jovi, the Cars, Nina Simone, the Moody Blues, Dire Straits, and the Award for Early Influence goes to Sister Rosetta Tharpe. Rolling Stone magazine describes Tharpe (1915-1973) as “a queer black woman from Arkansas who shredded on electric guitar, belted praises both to God and secular pleasures, and broke the color line touring with white singers, she was gospel’s first superstar.” She became popular in the 1930s and 1940s as a gospel singer who played rhythm-and-blues on her electric guitar, and became a precursor of rock and roll.
Sister Rosetta Tharpe
Tharpe influenced many including Elvis, Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, and Bob Dylan. On his Theme Time Radio Hour show, Dylan said: “Sister Rosetta Tharpe was anything but ordinary and plain. She was a big, good-lookin’ woman, and divine, not to mention sublime and splendid. She was a powerful force of nature. A guitar-playin’, singin’ evangelist.”
According to historian Gayle Wald, author of the Tharpe biography Shout, Sister, Shout! (see link below) Tharpe (who married three times) became lovers with gospel singer Marie Knight, with whom she toured for years in the 1940s.
In 1970, Tharpe suffered from a stroke, after which one of her legs was amputated as a result of complications from diabetes. Three years later, Tharpe died after suffering from a second stroke. She was 58. The 2018 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony will air Saturday, May 5 at 8pm on HBO.
